Bust Some Mutton
After driving for two hours, halfway convinced that I was lost, I ended up at the White Water Bar & Grill where, according to my uncle, all the cute rafter boys hang out on the back porch. I am all for that, but only agree that 2 of the 15 were attractive. And I could only stare briefly, as they were on their way out. Mostly I just gave full attention to a dog that someone had tied to their table.
It wasn't long before the fam arrived. The extended fam, that is. As my immediate family is all still on the east coast, preaching, spending time on a beach or hanging out with other college kids. It was the first time I had seen this part of the extended fam in years, almost seven years. Two kids I had only seen as, essentially, infants.
The next day, after food and catching up, we went to my very first rodeo. Intoxicatingly western and small town, it was held in Buena Vista. I felt like a kid--standing against the fence, white knuckled, as the bulls threw handsome young men, like ragdolls into the air. They stomped the scarecrow set up on the field, tried to stomp the clown and the cowboys, and were eventually roped by the two handsome horseback riders who oversaw each bull ride.
But, before all that, before wild broncos shook the fence and the overweight inhabitants in their "God was showing off when he made me" T-shirts got rowdy, there was something that I had never heard of before: Mutton Busting.
Apparently, Mutton Busting is a rodeo tradition, prepping the very young for their someday-careers as bronco riding champions. And this preparation happens on the back of a sheep. Children under 50 lbs can sign up and hang on for dear life as the sheep goes running as fast as it can through the rodeo arena. Tiny cowboy boots wrap partway around the wooly side and children go flying out behind the fuzzy bottom in a display of admirable awkwardness.
And the winner of the mutton busters was a little girl, 7 or so years old, wearing pink boots and a pink button up top that was tied around her waist and I remembered seeing her before the competition, when she turned to her mother and said,
"I'm gonna bust some mutton, mama."
And so she did.
